NHT Magazine Summer 2018

Once you feel you have achieved this you can move on to a very simple
figure of 8 exercise to develop a more consistent change of bend. The way
to do this is to:
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Ride (in trot to start with) large round the arena, concentrating on
inside leg to outside hand through the corners.
Change the shape of the way you ride round the short sides of the
arena to almost a half 20m circle at each end.
Then start to ride changes of rein along both long diagonals, so you
are constantly changing the rein with a half circle at each end, this
would look like a tall thin figure of 8 rather than a round ‘bumblebee’
figure of 8.
As you ride the figure of 8 think about the inside leg to outside hand
feeling on the half circle and then when you ride straight across the
diagonal you need to ‘pick-up’ the old inside rein so you have an
even feel down both reins.
Before arriving at the start of the new half circle on the new rein you
need to prepare the new inside rein through a few ‘feel and give’
motions down the rein. As you give the rein you should back-up
increased inside leg to outside hand connection by nudging with the
new inside leg to the new outside hand.
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Ride the new half circle and immediately change the rein on the next
long diagonal repeating the above step of picking up the old inside
rein and connecting the horse from both legs into both hands before
preparing the new inside rein with a series of ‘feel and give’ motions
down the rein backed up with the new inside leg.
As you consistently ride this exercise the horse has to remain supple
through to the bit and the consistent feel down the rein become elastic
through the constant change of rein and adjustment from one inside leg to
outside hand connection to the other.
The most important thing to remember here is that it is always leg first;
contact is achieved through riding the horse forward from leg to a ‘forward
thinking hand’, not a blocking hand.
These exercises build on the rhythm and suppleness exercises you will be
doing with your horse and help develop increased lateral suppleness as
well as an improved contact.
A forward thinking hand and a
soft elbow allows the hind leg to
swing through and push the
horse forward
Allowing with a soft elbow
Firm hand,
soft elbow
Impulsion is achieved when the horse takes more weight on his
hindquarters in order to perform movements with a greater degree of
engagement and cadence. The image at the bottom of this page shows the
relationship between the hind leg coming ‘through’ and under the horse in
order for him to lift under the saddle and take more weight through his
hindquarters, note the position of the head and how impulsion would be
compromised by a hand that is pulling back and not allowing the horse to
travel forward.
A shorter rein with a forward thinking hand will shorten the frame of the
horse and through the later scales of training will achieve greater collection.
Let us focus on improving impulsion, essentially what we are trying to
achieve is a greater degree of controlled ‘push’ from behind. The horse
should bring his hind leg well under his body and take more weight on his
hind leg for an increased period of time, leading to the impression he is
taking a longer, slower, step with a greater degree of ‘lift’ or cadence in
each step. This is developing the horse’s longitudinal suppleness, creating
the ‘rainbow shape’ over his back.
The moment from ‘almost’ walk into trot encourages
Improved hind leg action as long as the hand allows the
hind leg to come through from behind
Inside flexion, soft hand…
There is one simple way of improving impulsion and that is through
transitions. Repeated transitions will encourage the horse to engage more
from behind – the trick is to ensure the transitions are performed in an
rhythmical, supple manner with a good contact – it is no coincidence that
these are the first three stages of the scales of training! Hopefully you can
see how things are fitting together now and how each scale affects the
subsequent scale.
Image credit:
By Renate Blank - Klaus Schöneich Zentrum für Anatomisch richtiges Reiten® & Schiefen-Therapie®,
CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1256352
Continued on the next page…
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